A kolkhoz (, ), plural kolkhozy, was a form of
collective
farming in the Soviet Union
that existed along with state farms (sovkhoz). The word is a
contraction of коллекти́вное хозя́йство, or "collective
farm."

In a kolkhoz, a member, called kolkhoznik
(колхо́зник, feminine колхо́зница), was paid a share of the farm’s
product and profit according to the number of workdays, while a
sovkhoz employed salaried workers. In addition the kolkhoz was
required to sell their crop to the State which fixed prices for the
grain. These were set very low and the difference between what the
State paid the farm and what the State charged consumers
represented a major source of income for the Soviet government. In
1948 the Soviet government charged wholesalers 335 rubles for 100
kilograms of rye, but paid
the kolkhoz roughly 8 rubles. Nor did such prices change much to
keep up with inflation. Prices paid by the Soviet government hardly
changed at all between 1929 and 1953 meaning that the State did not
pay one half or even one third of the cost of production.

Members of kolkhoz were allowed to hold a small
area of private land and some animals. The size of the private plot
varied over the Soviet period but was usually about an acre. Before the
Russian Revolution of 1917 a peasant with less than 13.5 acres
was considered too poor to maintain a family. However, the
productivity of such plots is reflected in the fact that in 1938
3.9 percent of total sown land was in the form of private plots,
but in 1937 those plots produced 21.5 percent of gross agriculture
output.

Members of the kolkhoz were required to do a
minimum number of days work per year on both the kolkhoz and on
other government work such as road building. In one kolkhoz the
requirements were a minimum of 130 days a year for each able-bodied
adult and 50 days per boy aged between 12 and 16. That was
distributed around the year according to the agricultural cycle. If
kolkhoz members did not perform the required minimum of work, the
penalties could involve confiscation of the farmer's private plot,
a trial in front of a People's Court that could result in three to
eight months of hard labour on the kolkhoz, or up to one year in a
corrective labor
camp.

In both the kolkhoz and sovkhoz, a system of
internal passports prevented movement from rural areas to urban
areas. Until 1969 all children born on a collective farm were
forced by law to work there as adults unless they were specifically
given permission to leave. In effect, farmers became tied to their
sovkhoz or kolkhoz in what is often described as a system of
"neo-serfdom".